Ten industrial firms have paid the first installment of their long-overdue dues related to the use of dedicated feeders and trunk lines, following mediation efforts by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) to resolve a longstanding dispute.

According to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Everest Rolling Mill, Bhalwari Automatic Factory, SR Foods, SR Steel, Panchakanya Steel, Panchakanya Plastic, Shyam Plastic, Siddhartha Pet Plast, Gharana Foods, and Goyanka Foods have cleared their first instalment as of Thursday. The NEA confirmed that electricity supply to these firms has been restored after partial payment.

The FNCCI had proposed to the government on Sunday that industries would begin paying their dues in instalments as a security deposit, on the condition that the NEA reconnects power lines to the affected factories. Earlier, the state-owned power utility had disconnected electricity supply to 25 manufacturing firms after they failed to clear outstanding payments by the October 19 deadline.

The NEA has been attempting to recover the dues for more than a decade after defaulting firms refused to pay premium charges for using electricity during peak load-shedding hours. In August 2015, the NEA introduced a premium tariff for industries operating through dedicated feeders and trunk lines, citing the need to manage power demand during frequent outages.

The policy required high-energy-consuming factories to pay an additional premium on top of regular tariffs in exchange for an uninterrupted power supply.

NEA records show that around Rs 8 billion remains unpaid by 49 firms for using these dedicated facilities a decade ago. The authority has now allowed the defaulters to clear their dues in 28 instalments or seek administrative review if they wish to contest the charges.